本周，多家美国地区性银行报告了强劲的第三季度业绩，这得益于企业对贷款的旺盛需求，进一步表明尽管借贷成本上升，经济仍保持韧性。
A clutch of US regional banks reported strong third-quarter earnings this week, powered by robust loan demand from businesses, adding to signs that the economy remained resilient despite rising borrowing costs.
本周早些时候，美国最大的银行，如摩根大通（JPM.N）、美国银行（BAC.N）、富国银行（WFC.N）和花旗银行（C.N）也报告了贷款余额的增加，尽管资本市场疲软影响了他们的投资银行业务收入。
Earlier in the week, the biggest US banks such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and Citigroup (C.N) also reported higher loan balances, even as weakness in the capital markets hit their investment banking revenue.
PNC金融（PNC.N）首席执行官威廉·德姆恰克表示，人们已经将全球不确定性视为新常态，并继续推进业务运营。
People have accepted global uncertainty as the new normal and are pushing forward with operations, PNC Financial (PNC.N) CEO William Demchak said.
“乌云依旧笼罩，但经济依然强劲。人们仍在向其中投入资金，”德姆恰克补充道。
"The clouds are as dark as they ever were, but the economy's still strong. People are investing into it," Demchak added.
PNC在第三季度贷款增长方面领先于其他地区性银行，增幅达14.2%，其次是美国银行（USB.N）8%，M&T银行（MTB.N）5.5%，以及公民金融（CFG.N）5.29%。
PNC led the regional banks' loan growth at 14.2% in the third quarter, followed by U.S. Bancorp (USB.N) at 8%, M&T Bank (MTB.N) at 5.5% and Citizens Financial (CFG.N) at 5.29%.
这种强劲的借贷活动与预期相悖——尽管通胀仍然居高不下，受伊朗战争和美联储9月加息的影响，市场曾预期这将抑制企业资本支出并削弱借贷意愿。
The robust borrowing activity defied rising expectations that still-high inflation fueled by the Iran war and the Federal Reserve's September interest rate hike could chill corporate capital expenditures and dampen borrowing appetite.
地区性银行的高管表示，贷款管线依然强劲，目前尚未看到需求出现任何放缓的迹象。
Top regional banking executives said loan pipelines remained strong and they had not seen any slowdown yet in demand.
公民金融表示，随着银行进入第四季度，贷款需求实际上在过去几周开始回升。
Citizens Financial said loan demand actually started to pick up in the last couple of weeks as the bank entered the fourth quarter.
银行高管表示，他们希望了解在分析师在财报会后环节的追问中，有多少贷款增长与巨额的人工智能相关支出挂钩。
Banking executives said they were looking to understand how much of the loan growth was linked to the massive AI-related spending when pressed by analysts during post-earnings sessions.
“整个人工智能生态系统的建设正在全面铺开。这是一种非常强劲的动态，并且这种趋势会向供应链生态系统层层传递，”公民金融首席执行官布鲁斯·范·索恩说道。
"This whole AI ecosystem build-out is kind of full-on. It's a very strong dynamic, and that kind of cascades into a lot of the supply ecosystem," Citizens Financial CEO Bruce Van Saun said.
“即便利率上升，获取算力的意愿依然很强，相关参与者并没有真的眨一下眼，”他补充道。
"Even with higher rates, the kind of desire to get the compute power in place, the players aren't really batting an eyelash," he added.
PNC表示，由于其没有大型数据中心金融业务，AI支出热潮对重型设备、交通运输和能源等相关行业产生了影响。
PNC, which does not have a large data-center finance business, said there is an impact from the AI spending boom on tangential sectors like heavy equipment, transportation and energy.
“如果与AI相关的资本支出普遍放缓，我们认为，尽管我们并不直接向该行业提供贷款，但贷款增长也会放缓吗？是的，我认为会如此，”PNC首席执行官德姆恰克表示。
"If the capex broadly slows down related to AI, do we think, even though we don't lend directly to that, it would slower loan growth? Yes, I do," PNC's Demchak said.
一些地区性银行淡化了对AI的依赖，并强调广泛的商业和工业贷款增长。
Some regional banks downplayed the AI dependency and emphasized broad-based commercial and industrial loan growth.
美国银行集团（U.S. Bancorp）首席财务官约翰·斯特恩表示，即使在非AI相关行业，贷款增长也十分强劲，他特别提到了零售、食品饮料和保险等领域。
U.S. Bancorp CFO John Stern said loan growth was robust even outside AI-adjacent sectors, highlighting areas like retail, food and beverage, and insurance.